


Tick Tock

by livwrites



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Community: HPFT, Murder
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-09
Updated: 2016-04-09
Packaged: 2018-06-01 03:49:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 591
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6499651
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/livwrites/pseuds/livwrites
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Romilda Vane is going to die.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tick Tock

Tick tock. Tick tock. Tick tock.  
  
Romilda Vane's time is running out.  
  
Tick tock. Tick tock. Tick tock.  
  
She doesn't know it yet, doesn't know that her life is going to be over in half an hour. All she knows is that the day today is particularly dreary, that is raining again. The sky outside is grey, cloud-covered, and dull. Just like her life, cloud-covered and dull after the Battle of Hogwarts. Voldemort may have been killed but that hasn't made her life any easier. Being a Muggle-born, she had to go back for two years, two years that she hated because she was with people younger than her. And all her family was dead.  
  
Dead, like she soon will be. Tick tock.  
  
As she locks the door to her flat - she lives so close to Borgin and Burkes, where she works, that she doesn't bother Apparating - she looks up at the sky, sees the full moon through a part in the clouds, and shivers. People are always more volatile on the full moon, more likely to be aggressive in their bargaining, and with Borgin arrested and Burke busy with... _other things_ all the bargaining is going to be left to her. She doesn't like bargaining.  
  
Tick tock.  
  
Lost in her thoughts, Romilda doesn't notice the man following her until it's almost too late. He trips over a rock and swears loudly, causing her to turn around, panic, and Disapparate. Borgin and Burkes might be close by but sometimes she can't turn off the survival instincts from her year on the run during Voldemort's reign.  
  
Tick tock.  
  
It's funny, though, how Borgin and Burkes represented, in that one moment, a place of safety. For as she Apparates into work she realizes she doesn't feel safe here at all. Borgin was all right, but Burke is creepy. Romilda can't explain it, other than whenever he looks at her she wants to run away. Maybe it's from being a twenty year old woman, or maybe he's actually a Death Eater on the run from the Auror Office. When she interviewed for the position, she made no secret of the fact that she was a Muggleborn, and she was hired anyways, so it shouldn't be that.  
  
Tick tock.  
  
Burke points her into the back room, telling her that there are boxes of new items to unpack. He adds, as he knocks back a Firewhiskey and leers at her, that they should not be set out for sale. Translation: Former Death Eaters need to hide their contraband again. Romilda sighs, goes into the back, and tries to avoid losing any limbs as she sorts out the mess of things.  
  
Tick tock.  
  
After ten minutes the dust collecting in the room is becoming unbearable and she steps outside for a breath of fresh air. It's stopped raining, thankfully, but the sky is still overcast.  
  
Tick tock.  
  
As Romilda stares around at Knockturn Alley, she feels uncomfortable, like she is being watched. Her hand in her pocket, clenched tightly around the handle of her wand, she looks around, trying to see if anyone is ogling her. There - over by The Coffin House, is the same man who was following her before she went into work. Romilda gives a start and starts to go back inside, back to the stuffy, dust-filled back room, but she isn't fast enough.  
  
Tick.  
  
Her time has run out.  
  
Romilda doesn't feel anything but a slight push as the jet of green light hits her, and topples to the ground.  
  
The clock chimes. 


End file.
